Dave Creegan (Robson Green) tracks down more of Britain's most twisted criminals, proving that it takes a mentally unhinged cop to outthink a psychopath, in the third series of Touching Evil, premiering on PBS's MYSTERY!

The new series opens (Episodes 1 and 2) with Creegan on psychiatric sick leave after suffering a nervous breakdown. The shock of losing his ex-wife and two daughters, who were forced to move away for their own safety, and the brutal murder of a new love interest, have finally pushed him over the edge.

But Creegan can't stay off the case when he hears a convict he helped put away has been released on appeal. Creegan has always been troubled by Anthony Matchin's (Michael Hodgson) murder rap and agrees with the court that he is innocent -- which means the real killer is still on the loose.

Still, no sooner does Matchin hit the streets than the trademark killings resume. To date, each victim is a married woman with her heart neatly sliced out and left in a garbage bag near the corpse. As the bodies mount, bereavement counselor Michael Lawler (Andy Serkis) is a busy man indeed.

Joining Creegan on the case are D.I. Susan Taylor (Nicola Walker) and D.C. Mark Rivers (Shaun Dingwall). No help at all is D.C.I. Wheelan (Charles Dale), the local police chief who resents the intrusion of the Organized and Serial Crime Unit (OSC) onto his turf.

The case breaks when Creegan realizes that the killer's prime targets are not the women he's murdered but the men they leave behind. Before he can act, a colleague inadvertently stumbles on the truth-and under the knife.

Case two (Episodes 3 and 4) finds Creegan facing a new serial killer who uses fire as a weapon of death. Taylor goes to France to interview a jailed madman -- famous for setting fire to his victims -- for insight. He tells Taylor that fire is the purest way of dying and that fire can cleanse a person of sins.

Meanwhile, Commander Enright (Michael Feast) replaces Rivers with a new recruit, Martin Simmons (Andrew Scarborough), who is brilliant, eager, and deeply resented by Creegan and Taylor.

A new torched victim turns up with "Why me" carved into her skin. She is a young mother and heroin addict, who was drugged before she was set alight. The woman's babysitter, Lynn Southy (Alison Newman), last saw her alive with her ex, Andy (Kevin Dignam).

Andy briefly becomes the prime suspect, but he has no obvious link to the other killings. Suspicion then falls on Matt Van Der Twest (Andrew Powell), a former inmate at the burned-out mental hospital where the second corpse was found.

And then there's the elusive Susan Etchells, a foster child who may have been incarcerated at the institution under her birth mother's name, "Winters." Coincidentally, victim number four-a nursery school teacher-sacked someone named Susan Winters.

Creegan clinches the answer as he himself faces a final purifying bonfire.

Touching Evil, Series Three, is produced by United Productions in association with Coastal Productions. Philip Leach is producer. Executive producers are Michele Buck, Sandra Jobling, and Damien Timmer. Writers for the series are Tony Etchells (Episodes 1 and 2) and SiČn Evans (Episodes 3 and 4); directors are Bill Eagles (Episodes 1 and 2) and David Moore (Episodes 3 and 4). The series is based on characters created by Paul Abbott (Cracker, Reckless).

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Touching Evil, Series Three, is presented on MYSTERY! by WGBH Boston, where Rebecca Eaton is executive producer and Diana Rigg is series host.